September 14, 2007

Stark Speaks

Six months
(or roughly the typical interval between my posts on this here blog) after Rep. Pete
Stark broke
Congress’ proverbial “color line” and became the first member in
history to acknowledge publicly that he lacks a “God belief,” the California
Democrat is finally ready to talk about it.

Stark will
deliver an address titled “Government Without God?” as he is presented by the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy – a 30-year-old group devoted to “ministering,” as
it were, to the university’s Humanist, agnostic, atheist and non-religious
community – with their 15th annual Harvard Humanist of the Year award. The
address is set for Thursday night, Sept. 20, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in
Emerson Hall’s Room 105.

On the
reaction to his decision to come out of the nontheist closet, the program’s
flyer states:

Despite the
numerous surveys showing atheists to be the group Americans would be least
likely to elect to political office, Stark denies that it takes courage to
become the first admitted non-theist in the House. "What is
courageous," he adds, "is to stand up in Congress and say, 'Let's tax
the rich and give money to poor kids."'

Ahhhh,
Fortney. I so WANT to like you. But then you gotta go and say something dumb
like that.